Diack still barred from leaving France – source

Paris – Disgraced former world athletics chief Lamine Diack remains barred from leaving France, a source close to the case said on Thursday.

Diack has been charged with corruption and aggravated money laundering by French investigators and is suspected of having accepted bribes during his IAAF presidency from 1999 to 2015 to cover up doping by Russian athletes.

In its decision from December 21, which AFP has seen, the Paris appeal’s court said there was an “elevated risk” that the 84-year-old Senegalese would “escape French justice” if he was allowed to leave the country.

His son Papa Massata Diack is also being investigated by French authorities for the same offences as well as claims he accepted a bribe to help Rio win the right to host the 2016 Olympics.

Papa Massata Diack has been on Interpol’s most wanted list since December 2015 but is sheltering in Dakar as the Senegalese government refuses to extradite him to France.

The appeals court decision also stated that “French judicial authorities” are continuing to “try in vain to interview” Papa Massata Diack.

The French investigation initially focused on corruption within the IAAF but was extended in December 2015 to the awarding of the 2016 Olympics to Rio and the 2020 Games to Tokyo.

Contacted by AFP, Lamine Diack’s lawyer Daouda Diop didn’t respond.

Last year, Papa Massata Diack branded corruption allegations against himself as “a witch hunt” in an interview with AFP and accused France of having “taken hostage” his father.